Basically frugal basil

By Lois Barber
This basil plant was an Earth Day gift for myself, as well as an exercise in frugality. Except for the potting soil, which is new, every aspect of this herb plant was either free or recycled. Instead of buying fresh basil leaves, I bought a potted plant on sale for the same price. Basil can also be grown from seed from the year before’s plant, an even better idea. I used a hammer and nail to punch holes in the bottom of an empty olive oil can for drainage, and then used used coffee filters to line the bottom, followed by shards from broken terracotta flowerpots. Because the tin is so large, I didn’t want to use too much potting soil to fill it, so I used a layer of crumbled up newspaper as filler. (Feel free to use this column!) Finally, I put in the new potting soil and the plant. Not shown is the plastic lid from a large canister of coffee that serves as a drip pan. Used food tins look shabby chic and quaint with potted herbs in them. This is especially true if you have an aesthetically pleasing olive oil tin – Italian herbs, such as oregano and basil, seem to be a perfect fit for one. Look in your recycle bin. Perhaps your cobalt blue coffee can would look great with some yellow flowers growing in it.Lois Barber writes and takes photographs for a weekly gardening column for the Republican-American daily newspaper in Waterbury, CT.